Left Behind
by Selrahc Ngow
Summary: Harlock might be physically gone, but his spirit still lingered in the hull of Arcadia...and watched over his lover Yama. Some side stories for Fading featuring Harlock/Yama after Harlock had faded away.
1. Comb

Yama started to give up combing his hair as his hair looked no different from ten minutes ago - a messy, untidy snarl of hair which was comparable to the best of a bird's. Frustrated, he threw the comb on top of the dresser and howled towards the ceiling, finally taking his eye off the ancient mirror. He did not know why he would get so impatient; throughout the years he served on _Arcadia_ as her Captain, he had never been annoyed or irritated by the silly deeds of his crew members. He refuse to believe it. He had been mild for _decades_ , and now he got angry because of his hair!

He forced himself to get back to work after another long cry. He looked at the figure in the mirror again and froze. His eye widened in recognition but he dared not look back, fearing that if he did, his lover whom he had been dreaming to see for years.

'Harlock?' Yama breathed. 'Is that you?'

The former Captain of _Arcadia_ held out his hand and said nothing.

Just like what he had done when he still walked with a physical form.

The younger male picked up the comb and slowly gave it to Harlock. Unlike how Yama had treated his hair, he smoothed out the locks of his hair on by one with patience, using his seemingly-there fingers instead of the comb most of the time.

Yama lost track of time as he continued to stare at his long-dead lover in the mirror. After the one just when he found his husband in the mirror, they had not locked gazes anymore with Harlock focusing on Yama's hair.

The Captain of _Arcadia_ found himself falling asleep as the ghost (or whatever he was) did his hair. He wanted to stay awake, but he could not. He stubbornly battled against the tug of sleep for a while and failed miserably.

He dreamt of a life he could never have, a life of peace and without worries. He worked in a conservatory as a botanist, with Harlock visiting him daily and sometimes allowed to stay and help with his work. And when Yama returned late at night, Harlock would be sleeping on the sofa and immediately woke up to make dinner for his husband. The food was not fancy, but to Yama, having his husband with him was already enough.

But dreams were dreams, and one could not stay in that world for a long time. Yama slowly opened his eye, trying to search for Harlock with his blurry vision but there was not a single clue of his arrival except for the comb placed on the dresser.

Yama stared at it until he fell asleep again.


	2. Bullet

A gunfight was not something Yama liked. How he had gotten into this mess, Yama had no idea. And more ridiculously, he had actually decided to stay instead of slipping away from it.

Such a genius.

His nameless enemy's shot barely missed his waist. The Captain of _Arcadia_ fired one in return, and the person dodged and kicked Yama in his guts. The latter lost his balance and fell backwards, landing on the hard metal floor with his arse and losing his grip on Cosmo Dragoon still in his hand. He heard a bullet being fired, and he knew he was doomed.

He did not.

Time seemed to stop as the bullet stayed in place 10 metres in front of his chest. Both men froze and stared at the floating metal.

Then there was a gunshot. Yama's enemy fell down onto the floor with a loud thump, blood flowing out and staining the ground underneath him. Yama turned and nearly fainted.

Harlock was standing there holding the Cosmo Dragoon in his hand. Their gaze locked, and the former Captain of _Arcadia_ walked towards his lover and scooped him up in his arms, carrying him all the way back to the Captain's quarters. There, he carefully placed him on their bed, took out the first aid kit and stitched up and bandaged the wounds, neither of them speaking.

Even though Yama wanted to scream and cry and bury his face in Harlock's chest in his arms.

The stitching finished smoothly. The older male (Yama refused to call him a ghost) pulled the blanket over the current Captain's shoulders, made sure that his eye was closed and he was on his way to sleep, and then disappeared.

When Yama woke up, the wound was already healed. No bandages, no stitches, just a faint, white scar among the numerous tracks on his body.

This time, he cried.


End file.
